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Dear
Friends,
Waiting!
It is among the most universal of human experiences.
• Waiting to begin school.
• Waiting to get our braces off.
• Waiting for our first date.
• Waiting to graduate.
• Waiting to marry.
• Waiting for our first job.
• Waiting for our first baby.
• Waiting for our first house.
• Waiting to retire.
• Waiting . . . waiting to die.
Waiting is among the most common ventures in human
life, and common life redemptively the more it
deepens in meaning.
RIGHT
AT THE HEART
Waiting
is right at the heart of Christian spirituality.
Think of Moses waiting in the desert for silent
year after silent year. Think of Elijah, sequestered
in his cave, keeping a lonely vigil over earthquake,
wind, and fire. Think of Mary waiting patiently
for the fulfillment of the word of the Angel Gabriel.
Think of Saul—Saul who became Paul—being instructed
by the Spirit in the deserts of Arabia for three
solitary years.
Waiting is the hidden preparation through which
God puts his ministers. We neglect it to our peril.
I remember as a young, brash pastor waxing eloquent
about Moses in the wilderness and telling the
people that we need to learn all these lessons
so that it won’t take us forty years like it did
Moses. Just then a wise and respected member of
our fellowship spoke up calmly; “I doubt it!”
he said. Those three words took all the pompous
air out of my sermon that day and taught us a
valuable lesson. Especially me. Waiting is not
something to be avoided at all costs. In waiting
we learn things that we learn in no other way.
The Lord, speaking through the good prophet Isaiah,
reminds us, “My ways are not your ways” (55:8).
Our ways, you see, are the ways of noise and hurry
and crowds. Our ways are the ways of climb and
push and shove. Our ways are the ways of instant-knowledge
and instant-solutions and instant-gratification.
These, my friends, are not God’s ways. God’s ways
are like the rain and the snow that come down
disappearing into the earth. No rush. No fanfare.
No manipulation. Then when the time is right up
comes the life, “giving seed to the sower and
bread to the eater” (Isa. 55:10). That is God’s
way.
THE
COSMIC PATIENCE OF GOD
In
waiting we enter into the cosmic patience of God.
At least in part. We begin picking up the deep
rhythms of the Spirit, the heartbeat of God. We
begin thinking in terms of years and decades rather
than minutes and hours. Oh, we accomplish our
tasks, to be sure, but it is not with the frantic,
nervous energy of the anxious-ridden. Thomas Kelly
writes, “I find God never guides us into an intolerable
scramble of panting feverishness.”
What we are learning is how to work not in independence
but in cooperation. God, after all, is
at work in our world. We are not doing this on
our own. We are entering a cooperative, interactive
relationship with the Creator of the universe.
We are learning to take up the “easy yoke” and
the “light burden” of Jesus. So, as we are yoked
to Jesus all our thrashing and rushing begins
to ebb away under the steady pace of the Master
of life.
The four years that our Team has just gone through
as we have been waiting on God to give us clarity
about our new President has been so very instructive
to us. In many ways the process was even more
important than the outcome . . . though we are
most pleased with the outcome. It is quite a story
of ups and downs, of restlessness and stillness,
and of going where we did not know. Through it
all we were learning to work in cooperation
and not in independence. It is a lesson
we continue to learn.
STILLNESS,
A CLOSE COUSIN
Stillness
is a close cousin to waiting. Remember the wisdom
of God through the psalmist, “Be still, and know
that I am God!” (Ps. 46:10). It is indeed so.
As we wait in stillness we are given a greater
capacity to discern the kol Yahweh, the
voice of God, in his wondrous, terrible, loving,
all-embracing silence.
We begin to recognize a tone to the voice
of God. Satan pushes and condemns, God draws and
encourages, and with time and experience we learn
the difference. The Divine tone carries with it
the weight of authority; a calm, steady, inward
“yes.” E. Stanley Jones put it this way, “The
voice of the subconscious argues with you, tries
to convince you; but the inner voice of God does
not argue, does not try to convince you. It just
speaks, and it is self-authenticating. It has
the feel of the voice of God within it.”
Then too we begin to discover a spirit
to the voice of God. You remember that it was
said of Messiah that he would not break a bruised
reed nor quench a smoldering wick. Jesus, you
see, would never crush the needy, never snuff
out the smallest hope. The Divine spirit carries
with it a sense of sublime peacefulness, of overwhelming
joy, of universal good will toward all. It is,
in fact, the spirit of Jesus.
Finally, over time and experience we begin to
discover a content to the voice of God.
Dallas Willard writes, “The content of a word
that is truly from God will always conform to
and be consistent with the truths about God’s
nature and kingdom that are made clear in the
Bible. Any content or claim that does not
conform to biblical content is not a word from
God. Period!” This, of course, draws us into the
vast literature in both Old and New Testaments.
We are not here looking at incidentals but principles,
the fundamental truths of Scripture. We begin,
for example, to understand the Christlikeness
of God and come to see that God’s greatness is
seen precisely in his goodness. And more. This,
of course, is a very large subject and I could
do no better than guide you to Dallas Willard’s
book, Hearing God if you want to explore
the matter further.
As we learn to wait and to work in a posture of
stillness we are being changed. We begin living
in the steady peace of God, a peace that goes
down to the very depths of our soul. We begin
experiencing an unhurried conquest; an inward
conquest over ourselves, and an outward conquest
over the world. We grow less and less impressed
by the religion of the “big deal,” and instead
find joy in simple acts of goodness. We begin
letting go of the need to manage and control life
and instead find delight in God working to will
and to do his good pleasure. Toward others, we
begin to experience something vastly deeper than
pity or even empathy; we begin experiencing a
rock-solid, heartfelt, well-reasoned love toward
all. This is, in fact, the agape love of
the Bible, and it astonishes us when we see this
inward life flowing outward toward our neighbors
and coworkers and friends. And enemies even.
TWO
DESCRIPTIONS OF LIFE ABUNDANT
There are two descriptions of this life abundant
that penetrate me in ever deeper ways every time
I hear them.
The first comes from the pen of our trusted friend,
the prophet Isaiah. It is his now famous counsel
about waiting upon the Lord, and it stands in
direct contrast to all those at his time who were
fixated upon current events. Isaiah’s world was
reeling under the military campaigns of Cyrus,
the Persian emperor who founded the Achaemenid
Dynasty, and the people were anxiously wondering,
“What next?” Isaiah’s calm response was the simple
counsel to turn away from the malaise of current
events and instead learn to lean upon Yahweh.
His words are pregnant with the spiritual formation
themes of waiting and renewing and running and
walking. Listen: “They that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength, they shall mount up
with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be
weary, they shall walk and not faint” (Isa. 40:31).
The second description comes from the final paragraph
in Thomas Kelly’s marvelous book, A Testament
of Devotion. This is a book that Kelly never
knew he wrote. After his death others took his
speeches and writings, especially material from
that flaming last fourth of his life, and compiled
them into book form. His writings and spoken messages
during this period had taken on a deep note of
experimental authority. A strained period in Kelly’s
life was over and he had moved into a new wholeness
and adequacy. Listen: “Life from the Center is
a life of unhurried peace and power. It is simple.
It is serene. It is amazing. It is triumphant.
It is radiant. It takes no time, but it occupies
all our time. And it makes our life programs new
and overcoming. We need not get frantic. He is
at the Helm. And when our little day is done we
lie down quietly in peace, for all is well.”
Peace
and joy,
Richard J. Foster
PS
Enclosed with this pastoral letter is “A Service
of Commitment” which is tied to our Renovaré Covenant.
I hope that during the Advent season or on New
Year’s Day you will affirm and re-affirm this
commitment to follow Jesus Christ in all things
and in all ways. May God bless you as you do so,
whether individually or in a group setting. Remember,
even when we are alone, we are together in our
Covenant commitment and together always in the
glorious fellowship of the Trinity—Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. RJF
Reaffirming the RENOVARÉ
Covenant >
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